Will the British Pound Regain Ground This Week?

Welcome back to our latest review of the pound’s position against other major currencies on the markets. Would it fare better with exchange rates this week?

An overview of the currency markets for November 19th – November 23rd, 2018

The week started with the British pound stalled on 1.2842 against the US dollar. This led to a dip on day one as it fell further to 1.2827. Day two saw it regain those early losses by rising to 1.2845. However, as the week went on and each day saw a different picture emerge, there was a feeling we simply did not know what was coming next. The week saw a loss overall, but as the pound finished Friday’s trading on 1.2830, there was a feeling it could have been far worse than it was.

An early loss against the euro was perhaps to be expected after the first details of the Brexit deal were hammered out the week before. The pound began trading on 1.1318 last week, while this week opened with an immediate drop to 1.1225. We recovered some of those losses on Tuesday but could only rise as far as 1.1247 this time around. The worst rate of the week came the next day, when the pound dipped further to 1.1222. Fortunately, the final two days of the week both brought improvements. This meant the pound ended up rising to 1.1301 by Friday evening. While that was good, it was still below the opening rate we’d seen on Monday. Uncertain times.

The same rise and fall pattern would soon be discovered in the pound’s head-to-head against the Hong Kong dollar as well. Starting on 10.058, an early loss to 10.045 on day one was reversed by a rise to 10.060 on day two. This was not the best result of the week (that came on Thursday when the pound finished trading on 10.079). However, it was not to be a good week here either. The pound dipped to 10.040 on Friday. While it was not the lowest rate we’d seen here, it wasn’t to outdo the slightly higher rate we’d started the week on either.

Over to New Zealand now to figure out where the British pound would stand by the end of this week. So far, we had three disappointments to contend with, although none of them exhibited a huge drop. Here, we began trading on 1.8848 before dropping to finish Monday evening on 1.8791. Instead of seeing constant ups and downs in this part of the world though, we had a very different picture to contend with. Three losses brought the pound to 1.8725 by Wednesday night. However, we then had two stronger days that meant the British pound ended the week on 1.8927. That represented our first improvement this week – something worth talking about on its own.

So, would we get a similar result against the Australian dollar too? We started the week on 1.7683, falling to 1.7579 on day one. However, the pattern was not quite the same because we then rose to 1.7672 on Tuesday. While the predicted midweek dip did occur, it was followed by two more encouraging days. That meant we did get another promising result here, as the pound finished trading on 1.7753. It was good to know there were a few better results out there to celebrate last week.

Notable events in the world of currency

A better outcome against the Canadian dollar

Here too there were dips and rises, but overall the pound managed to go from 1.6926 to 1.6974 this week.

A sizeable dip against the Swiss franc

The good news didn’t last very long though, as the pound fell from 1.2938 to just 1.2789 against the Swiss currency.

Ups and downs against the Icelandic krona

The opening rate of 158.687 soon fell to 158.054 on day one. However, following three days of rises, a last-minute loss wiped out all the gains. It left the pound slightly lower on 158.679 on Friday night.

So, a disappointing week, but it could have been much worse. We will be watching closely to see where the next week takes us.